Friday, July 27, 2012

The Devil’s own playlist

Anyone who has ridden in a car with me for any length of time usually says something like: "I hate to ask, but what ARE we listening to?"

It's almost always a mix CD. Mr. Triple Air Sign here is always after the novelty, but many times these mash-up discs are organized around a theme. Like this one:

We present, for your listening and dining pleasure, the
Fallen Angel himself: Lucifer.

1) Symphony for the Devil / Blood, Sweat & Tears. The
Jagger/Richards classic arranged to within an inch of its unholy life.
Beginning with a 90 second solo trombone space fantasy – of course! – we
eventually enter verse #1 at a speedy clip. Dig the dueling tympani mixed left
and right. By verse #3 we have entered early 70’s self-indulgence heaven:
Behind David Clayton Thomas chewing the scenery on vocals the horns blare a
descant down through every note of the scale (twice!) while a wailing guitar
rises chromatically through the same scale and underneath the drummer seems to
be fighting off a herd of squirrels that are overrunning his trapset. Then a 3
minute moody solo fugue for piano – of course! One wonders what Mick and Keith
thought upon hearing this for the first time, but I bet the phrase “…..Bloody ‘Ell?” was uttered at
some point.

2) Devil With the Blue Plate On / Reverend Billy C. Wirtz.
Nobody serves up roast preacher like Reverend Billy. In this spoken word piece
he speaks about 2 million words in 3 minutes, ranting on about SAY-TAN in our
nation’s cafeterias. Yes, it’s funny to find signs and portents in yogurt and
meatloaf and um, Stonehenge, but the really hilarious joke here is how close
Billy sounds like the actual Sunday morning bible beaters.

3) Devil House / Shonen Knife. Speaking of mirrors of
American Society: You won’t find more heartwarming slices of Americana than
those that come from Japan. After some ‘spooky’ sound effects a solo guitar
enters and plays the ‘creeping across the room’ riff – and comes very close to
hitting the last note properly. Twice! Then our mini-skirted power trio jumps
in and starts the perfunctory punk. Here is the chorus: “It was a devil house /
I saw it once on T.V. / Devil house / And it was very, very scary.” And who can
argue with that? The fun here is the game attempts to pronounce the word
‘Devil’ repeatedly. “Da-Vee-La” is the consensus winner by the end of the song.

4) The Devil / PJ Harvey. Here’s a shocker: A PJ song that
is a light and lovely piano ballad, all whispery vocals, subtle dynamics and
skeletal mandolin. Want some easy money? Put this on right after any song from
“4 track demos” at a party and make bets as to whether this is the same artist.

5) When You’re Evil / Voltaire. We’re cheating a bit here as
the narrator is merely a minion of the Devil, but the sheer enthusiasm in which
he lists his sins qualifies him at least as one a Satan Scout, or at least an
Evil-lo. And few musicians nowadays have the cajones to release a march, let
alone one based around a violin. Hats off (and horns on), I say.

6) Devil in Disguise / Elvis Presley. Take another look at
the bejumpsuited cliché that was the King of Rock and Roll: This a rare
instance of a hit 1950’s song that has two different tempos and time
signatures. The verses are a sedate stroll, with some mambo accents, and the
choruses are a manic zydeco/polka snare drum fest. Put this one on and see if
it doesn’t make you want to dance, even if you can’t quite figure out how to.

7) Devil in Disguise / Lost Lyrics. Nobody does British punk
with American stylings like the Germans. This is the same song as above,
complete with bad Elvis impersonation intro, but taken at a
let’s-get-this-thing-over-with-quickly pace. The tempo shifts are there, but
each one is taken at twice the clip as the original. And there’s nothing funnier
than a drunk German tenor attempting to approximate Elvis’ baritone.

8) Preaching Blues (Up Jumped the Devil) / Robert Johnson.
And now for the real deal. This track is from the 1936 recording session, the
one done in a hotel room in San Antonio, Texas. Actually two rooms: One for the
artist sitting on a wooden chair in front of a microphone. And the other for
the recording equipment and engineer, with the mic cord running under the door
and down the hall. Over a jarring staccato descending riff, with numerous slide
fills Robert sings, howls, whispers and speaks of his torment. It’s a bit
minstrely, but it’s not without some genuine drama. When he tells you
matter-of-factly of the Blues: “If you aint never had ‘em / I hope you never
will.” It is not hard to hear the pathos and compassion of his world. In the
final third of the song his guitar playing and singing become so manic and
energized that you can hear his wooden chair bouncing and sliding around on the
bare wooden floor of the hotel room. Awesome.

9) The Devil Went Down to Newport (Totally Rocking) / Mono
Puff. Actually a solo album from They Might Be Giants’ guitarist, John
Flansburgh. This is the epic tale of a surfing contest between God and the
Devil. See kids, check out the Apocrypha; all kinds of fun stuff in there.

10) Devilmaster by Infermco / Firesign Theatre. First rate
send-up of an informercial by the zanies who brought you “We’re All Bozos on
This Bus” more than 35 years ago. And they haven’t lost their edge yet. “Out
demons out – and in profits in!”

11) Devil’s Trill / Vanessa Mae. I own several versions of
Guiseppe Tartini’s Solo Violin Sonata in G Minor – it’s one of my favorite
pieces of classical music. The trills in the title refer to brief staccato
‘bounces’ that move from string to string, like plucking with the bow. And near
the end of the piece the violinist is required to trill on one string whilst
simultaneously ‘executing swift passage work’ on another. Wow. As I said, I own
several versions of this, but I chose Vanessa Mae’s techno version for several
reasons: It squishes 16 minutes down to less than 4, you can dance to it, she's really purty, and
it features lots of beepy cellphone sounds throughout the mix. No, really!

12) Me and the Devil Blues / Cowboy Junkies. I’m sneaking in
another Robert Johnson song here. I mean, the guy totally rocked and he wrote
about the devil A LOT. This is a unique version, sung from a woman’s point of
view. And it is no less chilling to hear Margo Timmin’s angelic voice sing a
line like “I’m going to beat my man till I get satisfied.” The mix I have in
mind is far different from the slow, acoustic album version however. This is the one included in the “Pump Up The Volume” soundtrack, which simply doubles the tempo of the backing tracks. It’s a carousel of
spooky accordion, bass, slide guitar and violin, all sliding in and out of
Margo’s riveting vocal. Awesome atmospherics.

14) The Day the Devil / Laurie Anderson. One strange song
from one strange woman. I could point to many reasons, but we’ll just leave it
at the gospel bridge where a chorus triumphantly sings: “Gimme back my
innocence! / Gimme a brand new suit!” Ummm, yeah. Sure. Whatever you say
Laurie…….(*tiptoes away quietly*)

17) Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea / George
Harrison. With nothing more to prove as a guitarist George here tackles a Dixieland
classic on the ukelele. Go George! You were always my favorite Beatle.

(Couldn't find an appropriate video, so here is an inappropriate one.)

19) The Devil’s Been Busy / The Traveling Wilburys. Speaking
of George, and of a bunch of other legends with nothing left to prove. This
song is so cheeky it even has George playing fills on a sitar. The real fun
though is that they handed the second verse to Bob Dylan, who sounds like he just woke
up in the studio hungover after losing a fight the night before. He takes a
stab at the melody for awhile, but since it is far beyond his range (not a hard
task, admittedly), he just sort of gives up towards the end. Thanks Bob! Voice
of a generation!

(Couldn't find a video of this version, so here is another song from the same album and a video that features Benedict Cumberbatch's cheekbones.)

21) Satan’s Bed / Pearl Jam. Speaking of giving up on a
vocal line. Halfway through the last verse Eddie Vedder comes down out of the
screamy emo posturing and just talks to you, the listener, as a friend.
Charming. Also Includes the line “I’ll never suck Satan’s dick” which mitigates
the charm of the song to some extent.

(Video from 1966, when Skip was about 130 years old. Yes, that's Howlin' Wolf watching reverently off to the side.)

23) Mephistopheles’ Return / Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Overblown dynamics of Meatloafian proportions. DO listen to this one alone.
Anybody else in the room will just roll their eyes, call you a drama queen, and suddenly remember that they had an emergency appointment to go get the couch reupholstered.

And that, with a little trimming here and there, is my Devil
CD. Most tracks available from iTunes. And if you have some Satanic faves,
leave me a comment. Who knows? Volume 2 might descend from Heaven someday! Bwa-ha-ha!!

Buy my DVD!

About Angus

angusmcmahan@gmail.com

(831) 431-0636

Angus is a carbon-based, bipedal, ape-descended life form who has evolved his thumb-laden hands into two specialties: Writing stuff, and whapping on things in a rhythmical manner.

The rest of his hairy arms are now good at swimming. His legs have been running and pedaling bicycles for decades. And his enormous cranium seems to be engaged mostly in getting sunburned, playing video games, and yelling at the Giants on his TV.